Berlin “sex academy” offers tips for visitors
by Caroline Copley
Reuters
July 11, 2009

Berlin – Wannabe Latin lovers can improve their technique by playing with the erogenous zones of naked mannequins at a new interactive exhibition that has now opened in Berlin.

The “Amora sex academy” that opened in Berlin on Thursday welcomes visitors with the wry slogan, “Finally — an exhibition for those who always have to touch everything.”

More than 50 interactive displays guide visitors through the intimate areas of the male and female bodies, offering helpful tips on everything from striptease to oral sex and how to achieve a perfect orgasm. (more…)

Stolen Liberty Statue Beheaded in Chilling YouTube Video
1010WINS
08 July 2009

New York — A replica of the Statue of Liberty swiped from a Brooklyn coffee shop last month has turned up in a shocking online video that shows its blindfolded head sawed off and then smashed to pieces with a bat.

Police are investigating the YouTube video which is reminiscent of real terrorist videos.

The slogans “We Don’t Want Your Freedom” and “Death to America” flash onto the screen repeatedly in the video which was posted anonymously on July 4.

The 200-pound statue vanished June 21 from outside Ditmas Park’s Vox Pop shop.

Debi Ryan, owner of the coffee shop, called the theft “un-American” and told the Daily News that she is “scared” after watching the video.

The 8-foot statue was donated by local artists. Shortly before the theft, it underwent a two-week makeover. It was bolted into wooden anchors outside the store.

The shop is known for left-wing political debate, poetry readings and open-mic events and Ryan says the video was “clearly politically motivated.”

The Return of the Montauk Monster?
AOL News
May 14, 2009

Will the Montauk Monster mystery finally be solved?

The remains of a mysterious creature, said to have been photographed on New York’s Long Island last weekend, have renewed speculation about monstrous creatures — or monstrous tricksters — lurking near Montauk.

Photos of a similar carcass allegedly found in the area became a global Internet sensation last year. Those remains were said to have disintegrated before they could be examined, according to Montauk-Monster.com, which has documented the finds in detail. But the site says the newly found monster is on ice.

“The beast smelled like a mix of low-tide and rotten garbage,” blog author Nicky Papers wrote on the site. “It really smelled horrific. I couldn’t help but take numerous pictures of it and video clips.” Papers said that it doesn’t matter if the new beastie turns out to come from mundane origins, as long as this time, the world learns what it really is.

thanks Linda

From Cell to Sell: Police Recruit Activists as Spies
PRWatch.org
May 12, 2009

Source: The Guardian (UK), April 27, 2009
In Scotland, police have been offering environmentalists money in return for information about activist groups. “They said ‘if you help us, we will help you,’” one anti-nuclear activist stated, referring to military police officers. The The Guardian reports that “a network of hundreds of informants … claim to have infiltrated a number of environmental groups,” providing police with “information about leaders, tactics and plans of future demonstrations.” One of the groups targeted by police, Plane Stupid, was previously infiltrated by a corporate spy. A police statement stressed their “responsibility to gather intelligence,” saying contacts were made “to ensure that any future protest activity is carried out within the law.” Plane Stupid responded, “Our civil liberties were invaded and our right to peaceful protest called into question simply to defend the interests of big business.” Scotland’s Sunday Herald reports that the covert police campaign goes back to at least 2005, when military police set up “cosy chats” with people arrested during a protest at a nuclear arms site.

image: d.yimg.com

Submitted by John Lundberg of circlemakers.org:

Once you’ve read this article, you might want to check out the movie site to see who is actually hoaxing whom…

When Joan Collins THOUGHT she’d met Banksy: The elaborate plot to impersonate graffiti artist and how the MoS foiled it
by James Tapper
DailyMail.co.uk
03rd May 2009

To Joan Collins it must have seemed an unexpected honour too good to refuse – the chance to meet the world-famous, and notoriously secretive, graffiti artist Banksy.

Not surprisingly, she readily accepted the invitation to host a dinner party for the mysterious artist in a grand country home, with other excited celebrities in attendance to share the unique experience.

But The Mail on Sunday has discovered that the entire story was an elaborate hoax, designed to dupe the Dynasty actress – and the rest of the world. (more…)

Submitted by Wayne Zebzda:

Yes, and I am Babe Ruth’s Daughter too…

Former Employer of Woman Who Claims Dad Was Zodiac Says She Told Him Her Dad Was John F. Kennedy
by Joe Eskenazi
CrimeFriday
May, 1 2009

Chris Sorensen, a mortgage bank and real estate expert who says he recently employed Deborah Perez, claims the woman who on Wednesday told throngs of reporters her stepfather was the Zodiac Killer last year told him she was actually the illegitimate daughter of President John F. Kennedy.

“Long story short, she trapped me outside my office and told me she wanted me to be aware that there was going to be a lot of publicity surrounding her very, very soon,” recalls Sorensen of an early 2008 discussion with his then-employee Deborah Perez. “She said it was very confidential, but it was about to be revealed that she was the illegitimate daughter of one of the Kennedys and indicated that President Kennedy was her father and it was about to be revealed.”

Steve Huff, who’s been following this story on our sister publication, True Crime Report, notes that crime author M. William Phelps — who Perez approached last year with the revelation that her stepfather, Guy Ward Hendrickson was the Zodiac Killer — also claims Perez told him she was JFK’s daughter: (more…)

Beyonce skives off Vienna art museum tour
Google.com
April 29, 2009

Vienna (AFP) — US pop star Beyonce has angered a high-brow art museum in Vienna by sending a look-a-like to her own special personal tour of the museum, while she went shopping, according to newspaper reports here Wednesday.

Tabloid dailies Oesterreich and Heute said the R&B diva had been due to visit the Albertina, one of the Austrian capital’s most famous museums which attracts around one million visitors each year.

Recent visitors include Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Nicolas Cage.

But Beyonce, who gave a concert in Vienna on Tuesday, decided to skive off and do some shopping instead, sending a look-a-like to the museum and be photographed with Albertina director, Klaus Albrecht Schroeder, according to the reports. Read the rest of the story here.

Mind Control with Derren Brown
by Jorge Luis Marzo:

Derren Brown, British illusionist, invited two advertising executives from Saatchi & Saatchi to participate in an experiment. The outcome is mindboggling: To what extent am I exercising free will when I make things up?

Watch this video clip from the SciFi Network on YouTube.

Español
Recientemente, el psicólogo educativo británico Stuart Nolan presentaba, en el marco de un simposio sobre ilusionismo y percepción en el MediaLab de Madrid, un caso verdaderamente sorprendente que hizo a todos los presentes preguntarse sobre la libertad de los actos que creemos “objetivamente nuestros”. (more…)

Giant Internet worm set to change tactics April 1
by Jordan Robertson
1010WINS
March 27, 2009

San Francisco (AP) — The fast-moving Conficker computer worm, a scourge of the Internet that has infected at least 3 million PCs, is set to spring to life in a new way on Wednesday – April Fools’ Day.

That’s when many of the poisoned machines will get more aggressive about “phoning home” to the worm’s creators over the Internet. When that happens, the bad guys behind the worm will be able to trigger the program to send spam, spread more infections, clog networks with traffic, or try and bring down Web sites.

Technically, this could cause havoc, from massive network outages to the creation of a cyberweapon of mass destruction that attacks government computers. But researchers who have been tracking Conficker say the date will probably come and go quietly.

More likely, these researchers say, the programming change that goes into effect April 1 is partly symbolic – an April Fools’ Day tweaking of Conficker’s pursuers, who for now have been able to prevent the worm from doing significant damage. Read the rest of the story here.

image: neoseeker.com

Man follows sat nav to cliff edge
BBC News
25 March 2009

A car was left teetering on a cliff edge after the driver followed sat nav directions down a Pennine footpath.

Robert Jones continued to follow the instructions when they told him the narrow, steep path he was driving on in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was a road.

Mr Jones, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, only stopped when his BMW hit a fence above Gauxholme railway bridge on Sunday morning. Read the rest of this story and watch the video here.

via Switched.com

Cow farts taxed in Denmark
by David Masters
Fairhome.co.uk
February 13, 2009

Farmers in Denmark could end up being taxed for the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their cows and pigs following new proposals from the country’s tax authorities.

The Denmark Tax Commission estimates that each cow produces around 4 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year – 1.3 tonnes more than the average passenger car.

Cows release methane from their stomach gases via burps and flatulence – a gas that is over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere.

Danish farmers, however, aren’t too impressed at the proposals.

Steen Nørgaard, a farmer near Holstebro in Jutland, said the tax would increase his costs by one million Danish kronor every year.

“Cows burp and emit gas from the other end irrespective of whether there is a tax or not,” Nørgaard said. (more…)

From Jennifer Rose Emick: BBC reporter gets owned!

Zumba Phone: the Steorn Orbo of cellphones?
by Thomas Ricker
Engadget.com
January 30, 2009

Ready for this? The BBC is reporting on a “top-secret phone” developed by a 40-person strong ejector-seat technology company–IA Technology–from Hereford England. The Beeb calls it, “the world’s first fully accurate voice recognition system for mobile phones.” A bold claim (to say the least) from seemingly nowhere. The report starts with a dramatic lead-in, “It’s a secret world, much of which we can’t film,” before introducing us to the Zumba phone. A phone so secret that the BBC can’t even show us how it works. They do manage to demonstrate how it’s worn. A retro slug-on-the-ear type earpiece is removed from a thin slab sporting a display and circular dialer reminiscent of Bang & Olufsen fashionphones. The device relies upon a “100% secure” connection to an “Internet portal” (apparently called Zumba Lumba) that holds all your contacts. If the phone is lost or stolen “it is instantly useless to anyone else.” A lot of hype to be sure, especially with plans to deliver the Zumba to shops before Christmas. Hit the read link for the video and let us know what you think.

[Watch the video here.]

Update: Ha! The zumbalumba.com site just lit up with an unreadable, elementary school design and no detail other than a whispy concept called “Natural Connecting.” Some sleuthing and cross-referencing by our readers, however, seems to link Zumba CEO, Dean McEvoy, to a group of party promoters. Good luck with this Dean, the whole internet is about to be up in your shiznit.

Update from Marcy LaViollette, February 5, 2009:

Apparently they finally think they’ve solved the maple syrup mystery!

From Gothamist, January 5, 2009:

The Maple Syrup Smell… is Back for 2009!

In the past hour, we’ve received five emails alerting us to the alarming news: The sticky sweet scent of maple syrup has made its 2009 debut! So far, the smell appears to concentrated on the Upper West Side, but please let us know if you’ve suddenly gotten hungry for pancakes because the scent of breakfast has been so overpowering. Email us at tips(at)gothamist(dot)com.

Previous maple syrup incidents: October 2005, March 2006, November 2006, November 2007, and May 2008. Plus a November 2007 cameo on 30 Rock. (more…)

‘Capitalist’ student auctions off virginity
by ninemsn staff
NewsNineMSM
September 10, 2008

A 22-year-old woman who is planning to auction off her virginity in order to pay for her college tuition says she has no ethical hang-ups about the plan.

The woman, using the pseudonym Natalie Dylan, will auction herself through the website of the enormous Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel in the US state of Nevada.

“We live in a capitalist society … why shouldn’t I be allowed to capitalise on my virginity?” Ms Dylan was quoted as saying in the New York Daily News.

“I understand some people will condemn me … but I think this is empowering. I’m using what I have to better myself.

The pretty brunette has already finished her undergraduate degree in women’s studies at Sacramento State University and plans to start a master’s degree.

Speaking on shock jock Howard Stern’s New York radio show, Ms Dylan said she got the idea from a Peruvian woman who auctioned her virginity and received a $1.5 million bid. (more…)

Legal bid to stop CERN atom smasher from ‘destroying the world’
by Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
September 5, 2008
Telegraph.co.uk

The world’s biggest and most expensive scientific experiment has been hit by a last minute legal challenge, amid claims that the research could bring about the end of the world.

Critics of the Large Hadron Collider – a £4.4 billion machine due to be switched on in ten days time – have lodged a lawsuit at the European Court for Human Rights against the 20 countries, including the UK, that fund the project.

The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.

However, opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, may create a mini-black hole that could tear the earth apart.

Scientists involved in the project have dismissed the fears as “absurd” and insist that extensive safety assessments on the 17 mile long particle accelerator have demonstrated that it is safe. (more…)